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Topic: Toys R Us (Or: Die, Dinosaur, Die!) (Read 11191 times)

Looks like TRU is heading to the malls for Christmas with 80 new "Holiday Express" stores. Sounds like they want to capture the mall holiday sales since KB is gone and retail space is dirt cheap right now thanks to the economy.

It will be interesting to see if it helps them generate new sales or if it just sucks away some sales from their regular stores...

TRU also bought up the naming rights for KB Toys. One of their Holiday Express stores is going to be in a local mall in a space that was occupied by KB, I wonder if they'll use that brand in that same space, or if they bought it up for another purpose...

I found one of these stores in a shopping center that used to have a KayBee. It's a different location from where KayBee had been, but around the same ammount of floor space as KayBee. But the stock situation is less than a KayBee store would've had.

The funny thing is that the location they're at used to be another toy store, albeit many moons ago. Anyone remember TSW Toy & Sports Warehouse?

I found one of these stores in a shopping center that used to have a KayBee. It's a different location from where KayBee had been, but around the same ammount of floor space as KayBee. But the stock situation is less than a KayBee store would've had.

The funny thing is that the location they're at used to be another toy store, albeit many moons ago. Anyone remember TSW Toy & Sports Warehouse?

Yup, Ramsey/Mahwah NJ. I didn't know that became a TRU or if that's even the location you're talking about, I'm not in Rockland/North NJ much anymore. But I have an early childhood memory of going there when I was 6 years old in 1983ish and getting the Max Rebo band set by Kenner. I remember it clear as day.

Looks like TRU is heading to the malls for Christmas with 80 new "Holiday Express" stores. Sounds like they want to capture the mall holiday sales since KB is gone and retail space is dirt cheap right now thanks to the economy.

It will be interesting to see if it helps them generate new sales or if it just sucks away some sales from their regular stores...

I can't imagine they're going to do badly with this...

The best months KB every had were November to about January-ish every year... They were the only months the store ever did well. I think this is probably the smartest move though that TRU could make. Pay some employees briefly, probably not well, and catch all that traffic in the malls that need toys for the holidays... Target and Wal-Mart have to compete by pricing only then... TRU has a lot of advantages with this I think. Kudos to them for thinking outside the box.

And K-Mart, and Sears, and JC Penney, and Kohls (Saw that one the other day) and Best Buy, and I saw an HH Greg one... Seems soon we'll only have Wal-Mart, Target, 5 Below, TJ Maxx, Big Lots, and Dollar General to shop at.

Oh and Ross and Marshalls of course, even though they're both basically TJ Maxx most of the time.

They are right now, but they're spreading like a plague... They've gotten in Star Wars figures, really good ones, for the last few years here. They had Gammie Guards dumped at them last year. They had the Wal-Mart TPM wave dumped this past year, and TVC Wave 3 with the Death Star Trooper too...

They're everywhere here... On the smaller side. They sell discount stuff, candy, cheap graphic T's, cheap decorating stuff which rotates for each season... They're a store I find I can spend a ton in all the time. They get blind bagged Lego figs, and polybagged mini-ships and sets.

The candy selection is insane... If you liked old candy like Lemon Heads or swedish fish, this store's for you. We don't go to the movies anymore without hitting 5 Below first.

And everything is $5 or less... There's even goofy tin lunch boxes of Star Wars and Ninja Turtles and all kinds of other stuff.

It started out focused on girls, but that store's branched into all kinds of territory. I got facepalm and double facepalm fridge magnets for my gf... It's just a great store of useless ****.

No sign of any of the TRU Holiday Express stores around here just yet. But then again, it's not even Thanksgiving yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if we wind up seeing some of those seasonal stores pop up in the next week or two.

As for other Brick & Mortar toy stores? I've seen more of these Smart Toys locations popping up in mall locations. The prices are on the high side, but seeing how they don't have to worry about other toy specialty chains as competition, they can probably manage with some holiday traffic.